◎By Scott O’Dell

海豚島的平靜被外來捕獵海獺的人所打破，少女卡拉娜的父親及很多族人在與這些人的沖突中死亡，留下的族人繼續(xù)在島上生活，生活上的負擔(dān)重，但心里的想念更重。

Life in the village should have been peaceful,but it was not.The men said that the women had taken the tasks that1)rightfullywere theirs and now that they had become hunters the men looked down upon them.There was much trouble over this until Kimki2)decreedthat the work would again be divided—henceforth the men would hunt and the women harvest.Since there was already3)amplefood to last through the winter,it no longer mattered who hunted.

But this was not the real reason why autumn and winter were unpeaceful in Ghalas-at.Those who had died at Coral Cove were still with us.Everywhere we went on the island or on the sea,whether we were fishinɡ or eatinɡ or sittinɡ by the fires at niɡht,they were with us.We all remembered someone and I remembered my father,so tall and strong and kind.A few years ago my mother had died and since then Ulape and I had tried to do the tasks she had done,Ulape even more than I,being older.Now that my father was gone,it was not easy to look after Ramo,who was always into some4)mischief.

1) riɡhtfully [?ra?tf?li ] adv.正當(dāng)?shù)?；合適地

2) decree [d??kri?] v.規(guī)定；頒布

3) ample [??mpl ] adj.充裕的

4) mischief [?m?st??f ] n.淘氣

It was the same in the other houses of Ghalas-at,but more than the5)burdenswhich had fallen upon us all,it was the memory of those who had gone that burdened our hearts.

After food had been6)storedin autumn and the baskets were full in every house,there was more time to think about them,so that a sort of sickness came over the village and people sat and did not speak,nor ever laughed.

5) burden [?b??dn] n.負擔(dān)；責(zé)任

6) store [st??(r)] v.儲存

村里的生活按理說應(yīng)該太太平平，但實際并非如此。男人們說婦女們擔(dān)當(dāng)了理所當(dāng)然屬于他們的任務(wù)。盡管現(xiàn)在她們變成了獵手，男人們還是瞧不起她們。這就常常惹出很多麻煩，后來克姆基下令重新進行分工─從今以后還是由男人打獵，婦女收割。當(dāng)時已經(jīng)有了充足的過冬食物，由誰來打獵實際上無關(guān)緊要。

但這還不是卡拉斯－阿特村秋冬時不平靜的真正原因。那些在珊瑚灣戰(zhàn)斗中死去的人還活在我們心里。我們到島上或海上任何地方，也不管是打魚、吃飯或者晚上坐在簧火旁邊，我們都會想起他們。我們?nèi)紤涯钪骋粋€人，我懷念的是我父親，他是那樣高大、強壯和仁慈。幾年以前我母親就死了，自那以后，烏拉帕和我都一心想承擔(dān)起母親的擔(dān)子，烏拉帕比我大幾歲，操勞得就更多?，F(xiàn)在父親又去世了，照顧拉莫更不容易，況且他經(jīng)常調(diào)皮搗蛋。

卡拉斯-阿特村中別的人家也是如此，我們懷念死去的人。落在我們心上的負擔(dān)要比落在我們肩上的負擔(dān)沉重得多。

秋天食物儲存了起來，家家戶戶籃子里都是滿滿的，這樣就有更多的時間去思念他們，于是我們村子傳染了一種病，人們坐在那里，不說也不笑。